Will Smith certainly wasn’t a small-time actor by the time 1997 hit, as he’d starred in the popular NBC series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for six seasons and built some major film cred through Bad Boys and Independence Day. That said, there’s no question that Men in Black played an integral role in cementing him as a Hollywood powerhouse, though that’s not to say he was always game to play Agent J. It actually took convincing from director Steven Spielberg for Smith to agree to join Men in Black, and a helicopter was involved with making it happen.
Although Barry Sonnenfeld was sitting in the director’s chair for Men in Black (and the following two sequels), Spielberg was involved as a producer, and another key behind-the-scenes figure was James Lassiter, the executive music producer and Smith’s longtime business partner. While speaking with comedian Kevin Hart in an upcoming episode of his talk show Hart to Heart, which will premiere to Peacock subscribers on August 3, Smith first explained why he initially wasn’t interested in working on Men in Black:
